A Crooked Trail or Two

I know, I know... water is one of those things that a lot of people take for granted. I'm guessing that people who grow up in the midwest, be it in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" or some other equally damp state, find my astonishment about all this water a little puzzling. But it's not without reason: my hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado gets, on average, just 16 inches of precipitation... compare that to Madison, Wisconsin's 34 inches and you start to understand just how amazed I am to be surrounded by so much water!

I'm on a quick business trip to the Home of the Badgers, and had a bit of time before tonight's appointment to squeeze in a run along the Lakeshore Trails of the University of Wisconsin's Lakeshore Nature Preserve. These trails wend their way along the shore of Lake Mendota (and connect to other trails that go elsewhere around Madison) and provided a welcome respite from the busy University of Wisconsin campus and the city of Madison in general. I definitely recommend these trails... in part because accessing them required virtually no driving on my part. Hooray for that!

The trails provide views on two beautiful ecosystems: the huge lake to one side, and swampy marshland on the other. The din along the marshes, from birds, frogs and insects, was impressive! Definitely something we don't encounter all that much in my dry homeland.

They're also very well-marked areas, so while you might be able to run a mile without running into anyone else, you won't have to wonder where you are for long.

Enjoy these photos, and see you on the trail!